Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 19:41:43 -0500
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: How Shall We Remember Them?
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Keith F. Lynch" wrote:

> "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu> wrote:
> > Yeah, it would be silly of me to drive to Arlington to get a lift
> > into DC.  Still haven't decided if I'm going.
>
> Assuming this is in reference to the event at my apartment
> tonight, I think you might want to double check the directions
> (http://www.wsfa.org/calendar.htm) since I live in Vienna, which is
> west of Arlington.  Last time I checked, DC was east of Arlington.
>
> Although Vienna is further from Baltimore than DC is, it's probably
> easier to get to by car from Baltimore, thanks to the Beltway.
>
> I wonder how motorists got around before the Beltway was built?
> It wasn't all that long ago.

I can well remember it.  A trip from Falls Church to Herndon was A Major
Drive.  Most of the roads were (and still are) former Indian trails and in
those days the Major Routes were typically *3* lanes wide, with the center
lane used for passing -- in *both* directions.   (This was equally true of
Route 50/Arlington Blvd in Fairfax County and of Route 7/Leesburg Pike. When
I was in high school we used to have late-night drag races on both 50 and 7
-- with *no* other traffic to contend with.  That was in the early '50s....)

These days Northern Virginia reminds me in a sense of LA: the expressways and
20-mile drives to "shop" (at Fair Lakes, say).   When my daughter lived in
Sterling Park I used to use the Dulles Toll Road a lot and if I had an errand
in Manassas I'd take I-66 out there, then take Route 28 to Sterling Park, and
return home via the Toll Road -- a triangle with roughly 20-mile sides.

--Ted White